Thursday, November 16, 2006

Scratching the Surface

"...Wahhabism was an alien ideology to the Muslims of former Yugoslavia, though in the Bosnian war of 1992 - 1995, it became imported by radical Muslims. These had been invited to the region by then-president Alija Izetbegovic. ... When the civil war began in 1992, he invited Mujahideen fighters to the region, incorporating them into the Bosnian army. ... Izetbegovic was portrayed by the Clinton administration as a moderate, though it was recently revealed that he was in the pay of a Saudi Al Qaeda operative, Yassin al-Khadi (Yassin al Qadi). Izetbegovic was also in direct communication with Osama bin Laden, according to British journalist Eve-Ann Prentice. ..."

Although it is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media, the United States did more than just portray Izetbegovic as a moderate, as the above article suggests. Izetbegovic and the Mujahideen fighters he invited to the region were the recipients of logistical, financial, and military support from the US.

As London's The Spectator has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it."

Indeed, several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financers participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was, after all, for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6.

As the above excerpt notes, it was recently revealed that Izetbegovic was "in the pay" of Yassin al-Qadi, a specially designated global terrorist and widely reported al-Qaeda financer. Izetbegovic reportedly received $195,000 from al-Qadi in 1996, the same year he earned the "International Democracy Award" from the Center for Democracy.

Alija Izetbegovic receives the 1996 International Democracy Award during a ceremony held at the United Nations on March 25, 1997.

Al-Qadi, in addition to financing the Bosnian jihad and acting as a "chief money launderer" for Osama bin Laden, owned a company called Ptech, which provided sophisticated software to several departments and agencies of the US government, including the Army, the Air Force, Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, Customs, the FAA, the IRS, NATO, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the White House.

The same year (1996) al-Qadi was allegedly making payments to Izetbegovic, the al-Qaeda financer began obtaining contracts from the US government.According to US intelligence officials who spoke to 9/11 whistleblower Indira Singh, Ptech was a "CIA clandestine op on the level of Iran-Contra." More after the fold...

Ptech was apparently used to launder drug money for covert operations. According to Singh, a CBS affiliate in Boston actually "paid for private investigators to follow a couple of the Ptech people, and it did go to a mob-run warehouse area and the reports came back that basically it was a drop shipment place for drugs."

"I told him (Sen. Grassley) that I had stumbled onto the drugs and they were giving a free pass to all those affiliated with terror financing for 9/11. ... We had a very in depth exchange where he basically broke down and admitted a lot of things to me...he corroborated that it's all corrupt...he told me you're right."

"...Al-Qadi also maintained an unusually close relationship with notable US politicians. While attempting to defend Ptech, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts (ADCMA)revealed the fact that al-Qadi “was prominent in Washington circles and even showed President Jimmy Carter and Dick Cheney around during their visits to Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Qadi told an Arab newspaper in October of 2001 that he “spoke to [Dick Cheney] at length” and they “even became friends.” Similarly, while speaking with Computer World Magazine, Ptech cofounder Oussama Ziade said that al-Qadi “talked very highly of his relationship with [former President] Jimmy Carter and [Vice President] Dick Cheney." ..."

In 1998, FBI agent Robert Wright confiscated $1.4 million linked to al-Qadi, but astonishingly, according to The Boston Globe, al-Qadi "was so well respected that he escorted former President Jimmy Carter around a Saudi women's college in 2000."

Meanwhile, Agent Wright was "intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed" from arresting terrorists, seizing assets, and expanding his investigation into the financial network of which al-Qadi was a part. According to Wright, 9/11 could have been prevent had he been allowed to do his job.

Former counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke has testified before Congress that al-Qadi's charity, the Muwafaq foundation (which was allegedly used to funnel cash to Izetbegovic), “reportedly transferred at least $3 million, on behalf of Khalid bin Mahfouz, to Usama bin Laden".

Khalid bin Mahfouz, who "established and funded" the Muwafaq foundation, was once the principal shareholder and director of BCCI, a "criminal enterprise" used by the CIA to "funnel cash through its Islamabad and other Pakistani branches to CIA client Osama bin Laden, part of the $2 billion Washington sent to the Afghani mujahideen."

Mahfouz's and al-Qadi's Muwafaq foundation, according to the congressional testimony of former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Jonathan M. Winer, provided direct support for terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia, and Chechnya—all areas where the CIA reportedly conducted operations of mutual interest.